Ballads of Irish chivalry :: :: University of Virginia Library

'Mid Galty's woody highlands, by a torrent's lonely shore,
There dwelt a banished monarch in the dusky days of yore;
Long the pleasant Munster valleys had owned his kingly sway,
Till uprose a fierce usurper and reft his throne away.

II

No vassals filled his chambers, no courtiers thronged his hall;
His bright-eyed little daughter and a grey-haired chief were all,—
Were all the friends remaining since the day of gloom and woe,
When he fled, a careworn exile, to that tower in Aherlow.

III

Around that grey old fortress, by the shady forest springs,
With a heart for ever dreaming of all bright and lovely things,
Roamed that regal little maiden every golden summer e'en,
Watched and loved, where'er she wandered, by the radiant Fairy Queen.

IV

The sunset light was reddening on the crest of tall Benn Gar,
As sat that little maiden beneath the woods afar;—
“How lovely spreads this land,” she said, “in the golden sunset's light,
But my father's bard has told me of a world more fair and bright.

V

“Through that land I'd wish to wander; there I'd ask a warrior train
Of its queen, to set my father on his Munster throne again.”
Scarce the maid the words had uttered when there shone a radiance sheen
Up and down the shady valley and the forest depths between.

VI

On the song-birds fell a silence, was no sound through earth or air,
Till in robes of snowy splendour stood a heaven-browed lady there;
With kindly eyes down-looking on the little maid stood she,
While the birds began their gladsome song again from bower and tree.

VII

Then spoke the Queen of Faerie with a sweet, heart-thrilling tone,—
“Thou hast wished, O little dreamer, for a sight of our fair zone;
Then a gift of power I bring thee: take this snowy wand, and when
Thou dost long to see our bright land, raise it thrice in this wild glen.”

VIII

Scarce the witching words were spoken when the Fairy Queen was gone;
But a trailing light behind her down the silent valley shone;
And up stood that beauteous maiden, under mystic fairy spell,
And thrice she raised the white wand in that flower-starred forest dell.

IX

On a sudden stood beside her a milk-white palfrey fleet,
And a-nigh a mounted esquire in bright mail from crown to feet;
Then mounted that young maiden, and away, swift swift away,
Over Galty's dreamy highlands like a flash of light went they.

X

The sunset sudden vanished, and a mighty vault instead,
Lit with many-tinted crystals high o'er their pathway spread;
Cavern spars gleamed all around them with the white stars' silver flame,
Till they crossed th' Enchanted River, and to Tirnanoge they came.

XI

The maiden gazed with wonder on that world of beauty bright,
With its green and heavenly mountains bathed all in silver light,—
With its calm sky ever gleaming all in crystal sheen above,
And its plains, bright streams, and valleys, where the fairy dwellers rove.

XII

It seemed unto the maiden scarce an hour had passed away,
When they found a mighty falchion—beside their path it lay.
“Take this falchion to my father,” said the maid:—“for some old lore,
Some weird voice doth sudden tell me 'twill regain his right once more.”

XIII

Sped the esquire with the falchion to the exiled monarch back,
And alone went forth the maiden on her silent heavenly track,
Till beside a crystal river towered a diamond palace sheen,
And, with all her court around her, there she found the Fairy Queen.

XIV

“By this fairy wand you gave me with its wonder-working power,
Send me back, O radiant empress, to the world for one short hour,—
Back to Dun Grod's hoary fastness that my father I may see,
And from dreary woe and sorrow I'll bring him back with me.”

XV

“Few are they,” said that bright empress, “who would leave this land again;
Yet go, and on thy swift course thou shalt have befitting train.”
Away the Munster princess and her fairy train are gone,
Through the green vales, through the bright plains, through the cavern, to the sun!

XVI

When she reached the green Earth's valleys from that wondrous fairy zone,
'Stead of two short hours of gladness, ten long years away had flown!
In the land were many changes; 'twas the golden summer time;
And they asked a youthful peasant, “Who now reigns in this sweet clime?”

XVII

“Duan reigns, our aged monarch; he has slain th' usurping lord,
And regained fair Munster's valleys by a mighty conquering sword;
But, O lovely lovely lady, are you come from Fairyland,
You look so bright and beauteous on this morning fresh and bland?”

XVIII

The lady could not answer, so filled with joy was she;
With her train of maids and gallants sped she on o'er hill and lea,
Till she reached her father's palace where it stood by Shannon's wave,
And joyful was the welcome that the gladsome monarch gave.

XIX

Soon he led to his bright daughter a champion young and tall,—
“This be he whose gallant father still was faithful in my fall;
Thou canst ne'er find champion braver, truer love thou ne'er shalt find:
Wilt thou then return, as thou hast said, and leave him and me behind?”

XX

On her father, on the champion, on her brilliant fairy train,
She looked; then said she'd ne'er return to Fairyland again.
Bright was the nuptial morning, and happy was the time,
When that princess and her champion reigned o'er the Munster clime.